Politics

An intriguing look inside religion and Congress: Who prays and for what?

By Andrew Malcolm12/18/2012 09:04 AM ET

We've been hearing a lot about religion lately. It is the holiday season for such things in America. And, sadly, we've suffered another gaping wound from a sick outlier wreaking incomprehensible revenge on the most innocent of innocents and their caregivers.

Despite the sacred separation of church and state in American governmental tradition, religion is an everyday fact of life for most Americans and is reflected in the operations of its government. Yes, President Obama tried to convince his childhood homeland of Indonesia that America's national motto was "E Pluribus Unum." It isn't, of course. It's "In God We Trust."

Which makes ObamaCare's open assault on religious freedoms all the more striking, and some three dozen church lawsuits against this administration so understandable.

Now, the smart folks over at C-SPAN have given us a peek into the religions of Congress' everyday operations, in the form of data on the guest chaplains who've been chosen to pray in the House of Representatives during this concluding 112th Congress.

Yes, that's right. No formal prayers in schools or at football games. But as is often the case, it's OK for the elected folks up on Capitol Hill.

In the 671 days between Jan. 5, 2011, and Nov. 6, 2012, the House of this Congress met for 316 days. In that time they heard prayers from two permanent chaplains and 93 guest chaplains. (Scroll down for a C-SPAN video of one recent prayer.)

Yes, of course, some troublemakers have challenged this practice, at least three times. As recently as 1983 the Supreme Court rejected the challenge, finding the tradition "has become part of the fabric of our society." Indeed, congressional prayers predate the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. That seems fairly well established.

So, what were the religions of the chaplains? C-SPAN found their religions roughly represent the religious background of the country, except for the over-representation of Jews, for example, and, by definition, the lack of chaplain representation of atheists and agnostics. "And now no need to bow your head or even stop talking as atheist Mr. Clement Diddlesworth offers several moments of silence and a message of nothing in particular to no Almighty whatsoever."

As in the country roughly, evangelical Protestants represented 37% of the chaplains, mainline Protestants 23% and Roman Catholics 26%. Eight percent of the chaplains were Jewish, 1% Mormon, 1% Muslim and 4% other.

What really intrigues us is the word cloud that C-SPAN created out of the vocabulary used in all of the prayers uttered in the House. That's the cloud atop this page. The larger the word, the more often it was used.

"Spirit," "Might," "Help" and "Grant" are in there too, along with "Great," "Greater," "Good," "Serve" and "Thanks."

Strangely for Congress, the words "Members" and "Work" show up in large letters. If someone wanted to be snarky, they'd ignore the fact that House members work many days back home on constituent services and say those "Work" prayers obviously went unanswered in a body that convened in Washington barely 47% of the days involved.